Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Revisited

Nintendo is running a great deal through Club Nintendo this month. If you register copies of Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensai IV with them, you get a $30 credit for the e-shop. Both of these games were on my buy list so I gladly took advantage of the deal. I plan to use the majority of the credit to get a copy of the new Mario and Luigi game but I did make a small little purchase of Link's Awakening.

I would classify Link's Awakening as probably my favorite Zelda game. When it came out, it was mind blowing that a game like that would come out on a handheld. I spent a long time playing it and replaying it as a teenager. I beat it several times over the years but I probably haven't attempted to play this game in 15 years maybe. Needless to say I was excited to get back to it.

I still love the game but there are aspects that are dated. The item management really sucks. You're constantly bringing up the menu to change what you're using at any given moment. The game is also kind of bad about aiming you sometimes. I wandered into an area and didn't have the means to kill a mini-boss there. After a few deaths, I left and checked a walkthrough and it had nothing to do with my current quest. So, that was a little frustrating but overall not a huge deal.

The use of the items in this game are clever. You start out with a really small world and the items allow you to open it up as you progress. The Feather remains one of the most unique Zelda items ever as it allows you to jump. Being able to jump really gives the game a different feel from most of the others. The Marioesque side scrolling platformer parts are fun and different.

This is a strange game in hindsight. A lot of enemies and characters from other games appear. There's a character that looks a lot like Mario, Kirby makes an appearance later and there are a ton of Mario baddies present in the game. I've never seen that in a Zelda game since. I'm kind of curious why they did that with the game. Maybe they thought since it was a handheld that they could experiment with things a bit?

I completed the third dungeon this morning. I died a few times but the puzzles didn't pose a serious challenge to me. The second dungeon was tougher in that regard. After, dying several times in the dungeon, stupid bombs, I killed the boss in a matter of seconds. I had my brief misadventure after that but I'm back on track to get through the fourth dungeon today or tomorrow.

I'm still really enjoying the game a lot. It has some flaws that weren't considered flaws at the time it was released. I might consider Link to the Past to be a better game now but I'm not 100% sure of that fact right now. I would probably need to play Link to the Past again to make an honest determination of that and it's a much longer game.

I think my biggest surprise going back is how small the game world is and how short the game seems to be. I remember spending months on it as a teenager and I think I could probably finish the game off by the end of the week... and I really don't remember much about the dungeons and puzzles anymore. Like I said, still a great game and worth checking out for the $5.99 if you have a 3DS.